Because Things Change

Tag Archives: moments of clarity

At first, I really did not like this book and thought it is going to be a very long 7 hours listening to Shonda’s tangy, irritating voice (by now you get I listened to the audiobook, right?) and her ramble on about her family and kids, but then we hit her Dartmouth Commencement speech and I’m like hang on, this chick has got a point:

“Dreams are lovely. But they are just dreams. Fleeting, ephemeral, pretty. But dreams do not come true just because you dream them. It’s hard work that makes things happen. It’s hard work that creates change”

And that is where I actually really started to listen, just over 1 hour into the book. Yes, we hit some more (a lot more) children related stories, and I’m all like, I don’t care about children, I don’t want children, this is boring, and some parts really are boring. But then we get the other parts. The parts that resonate within me and I think to myself, my god Joan, Shonda is talking to you. The part about her weight loss; getting so fat that you have to get seatbelt extenders on an airplane is a mortal fear of mine! And even though I have never heard of the term “Veal Practice” It is something I am totally familiar with, I do it all the time!

Making avatars of people and then not knowing where your friend went, when you finally, really see the real person behind your made-up friend, yeah, done that. Until listening to this book I did not understand that it was me; I needed to have that type of friend at a certain time in my life, so I had attributed certain characteristics to that avatar person to create her into the friend I needed, and truly loved at that time.

I only read this book because everyone else seems to have read it, and I need to know what I am missing out on when it comes to popular books. Plus Grey’s Anatomy Seasons 1 to 5 is my absolute favourite TV Show ever (and then it got a bit sucky, to be honest) So while I am sure this book is not a self-help book, it has certainly, in parts, shone a giant spot light on the crappy parts of my life and yeah, I am not Shonda, I do not have her achievements and I am not the creator of some amazing TV Shows, but I share a bunch of her problems, and perhaps I can do with a year of yes myself, or perhaps a couple of months of maybes to start off with.